Mudsill theory

A sudo-theory that proposes that there must always be a lower class for the upper classes to rest upon. The inference being the mudsill, the lowest threshold that supports the foundation for a building. It was used by its composer Senator/Governor James Henry Hammond, a wealthy southern plantation owner to justify what he saw as the ability for the lower classes to do menial work and thus enable higher classes to move civilization forward. Many saw the argument as an obvious justification for exploitation, and it was directly used to advocate slavery in the rhetoric of John Calhoun and other pre-Civil War Democrats, that were struggling to maintain their grip on the burgeoning Southern economy. These and other coloqials were used as rhetoric in what has been called Marxism for the Master-Class.